Vanuatu National Statistics Office Strategic Plan

Transcription

1 VANUATU NATIONAL STATISTICS OFFICE Government Building, Private Mail Bag 9019, Port Vila, VANUATU Tel: (678) 22110/22111; Fax: (678) Vanuatu National Statistics Office Strategic Plan Vision Mission Strategic Directions & Forward Work Program 2008 to 2013

2 Strategic Plan and Forward Work Program Introduction The Vanuatu National Statistics Office is recognised as a leader in the Pacific Region. We are a key contributor to an effective democracy in Vanuatu as we provide the statistics which support decision making among government and the community. The Strategic Plan and Forward Work Program for the Vanuatu National Statistics Office describes our working environment, outlines our vision, mission and values strategic directions and summarises our statistical work program for the next five years. We must balance four major activities. We must: meet our financial obligations deliver satisfaction to our clients have a positive culture and high performing staff; and encourage innovation, change and improvement. This is a key part of a good strategic management process. Our success in this process depends on how well we understand and work towards these objectives. There are three major areas in the strategic plan and forward work program. The first is the most important. We must continue to deliver high quality statistics and meet our publication schedule for all our regular collections like trade, tourism migration and National Accounts. The second is looking at what else needs to be done. The government has emerging statistical needs and our challenge is to meet those needs by finding efficient and creative ways to deliver high quality statistical data. The third is building strong relationships with our key clients and other data providers like the Ministry of Health and Education to work together to improve the statistics available in these areas. The Strategic Plan brings and Forward Work Program together, in one place, all the important information that is essential to guide us in our work and ensure the continued success of the office into the future. 2

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4 Vision 'To provide timely, reliable and quality information' The focus of the office continues to change as we make progress in meeting our key objectives. All the focus areas of timeliness, data quality, building capacity and dissemination of data still remain important objectives for the Vanuatu NSO. Timeliness The NSO now publishes a schedule which lists all publications and their expected release date. It also publishes a catalogue of publications clearly showing the latest available issue. Meeting the published schedule dates for publications has been a key achievement on the NSO. Data quality Some progress has been made in this area with more still to come. Working in partnership with other data providers will be an important step to improving the quality of statistics available to the government and the community. Building capacity This continues to be an important area. Building the skills of every person in the office leads to better job satisfaction and a stronger office. If more people have high level skills the office can better meet the demands placed on it. If the office is an enjoyable and rewarding to work this will help the office attract and retain staff. Dissemination It is important that we consider the best dissemination strategy for the future to make sure that everyone in Vanuatu is counted and knows something about Vanuatu. The office has achieved a number of good objectives in this area being the first with the release of the Vanuatu Statistics website through the PRISM project. 4

5 Mission As stated in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management Corporate Plan, our key role is: To collect, compile and supply economic and social data to users in government, the private sector and international organisations. This is our core business. The Vanuatu National Statistics Office is funded by government to deliver these important economic and social statistics. The data must be of high quality, reliable and timely to assist the government and the community to make better informed decisions. We must also provide statistics to meet emerging needs in the social and environment area. To do our business well we must build and maintain good relationships with our key providers and clients. If we are to continually improve we should monitor our past and current performance to plan well and build a stronger future. Vanuatu Statistics Act 1983 The Statistics Act 1983 empowers the Vanuatu National Statistics Office to produce timely and accurate statistics about the economic and social characteristics of Vanuatu for use by government departments, private institutions, business, overseas organisations, researchers, students and the general public. According to the Statistics Act 1983, the main activities of the VSNO are to: Collect, compile and analyse statistics Advise on statistical undertakings Coordinate statistical activities and data collections Direct the release of statistics for other government agencies Assist in the collection and dissemination of statistics in Vanuatu 5

6 Our Values Honesty and fairness Integrity Hard work Respect Loyalty Professionalism Effective and efficient teamwork Transparency Trustworthy Excellent customer service 6

7 Strategic Directions Timeliness It is essential that the NSO meet the schedule of publications for our economic and social collections. This is our core business to meet the needs of government. The monthly trade and tourism migration statistics are important indicators to help measure the economy. The Quarterly Statistics Indicators are also very important as they are the key inputs into our highest priority collection, the National Accounts for Vanuatu. To do our business well and continue to meet our schedule, we must ensure we have the right number of trained staff to undertake the workload. When we have special projects in the office like the Agriculture Census and the Household Income and Expenditure Survey we must plan well ahead and make sure we have extra resources to do the work without interrupting our normal schedule. Data quality and reliability The statistics we produce for Vanuatu must be accurate and we must continue to ensure high quality data dissemination. We must ensure our providers are supplying the best information possible to us and that we edit the data carefully to make sure it is accurate and reliable. We must examine the estimates before we publish to make sure they are high quality. The publications we produce will contain accurate, reliable data and good information describing the data. Our website will contain a range of key statistical data and we will keep it up to date and accurate. We must review our collections and practices and talk to our providers and clients to keep the statistics we produce relevant and accurate. If our clients have concerns with the data we should meet with them and discuss the issues openly. We must keep aware of emerging statistical trends by talking to our clients often. If these are priority needs of the government we must develop a plan to include them in our future work program. This way the NSO will be seen as responsive and relevant, and better reflect their role in meeting the statistical needs of government. 7

8 Strategic Directions (continued) Building capacity In order to meet the Ministry of Finance objective ' To build a professional, proactive, responsive and high performing ministry', it is important that the staff have the skills to do their job well. Training is an important component of building capacity. We will train our staff well by using a combination of on the job training, in house training and other local and international training. We will build capacity by having staff rotations across social and economic collections so that more people understand all the statistics we collect. We will continue to provide high quality training to our enumerators in all the islands so that they can collect good information. We will also make sure that the providers understand what the survey is about and why they are being asked to fill in the questionnaire. We will also train people in other government departments who collect data on our behalf to get good quality information. We will provide them with the necessary tools and an understanding of the statistics and highlight the important role they play in delivering quality statistics for Vanuatu. We will also train the key people in government who use our statistics in order to develop good policy for the people of Vanuatu. Building relationships The Vanuatu NSO has a number of important data providers and users. It is critical that strong relationships are built with them. The National Accounts is important to key users like the Department of Economic and Sector Planning, the Reserve Bank and Department of Finance. For trade statistics, the key users are Department of Trade, Customs, Department of Finance, Department of Economic and Sector Planning, the Chamber of Commerce and the Reserve Bank. If we can build strong relationships with all these important users the Vanuatu NSO can use these close partnerships to improve the range and the quality of the statistics it produces. To ensure a more efficient statistical process, the Vanuatu NSO should talk and explain the value of getting high quality data in a consistent format using common reporting systems where possible with the key producers of statistics. This will enable electronic provision of the raw data and a more efficient and accurate process. 8

9 Strategic Directions (continued) Special Surveys The Vanuatu National Statistics Office is currently undertaking an Agriculture Census. The key users of the Agriculture Census are the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Economic and Sector Planning. Other special surveys which are undertaken on a five or ten yearly basis are the Population Census, the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), the Visitors Survey and the Demography and Health Survey. Statistics Advisory Committee The creation of a Statistics Advisory Committee (SAC) will be a key step in ensuring the outputs of the Vanuatu NSO remain relevant to the issues confronting policy makers and the community. The SAC would advise the Government and the Minister on: i. The annual and longer term work program of the office ii. The improvement, extension and coordination of statistical services iii. Emerging priorities or any other statistical matters. In the short term the Microeconomic Committee chaired by the Reserve Bank and attended by the Government is a good existing group to discuss any economic statistical issues. Until the SAC can be developed, it would be useful to identify a few key agencies like Health and Education and encourage their representatives to get together and discuss the future and direction of social statistics in Vanuatu. Meeting international reporting obligations The Vanuatu NSO also has a number of key international clients. The Millennium Challenge is a cross sectoral program that has identified nine Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to be achieved. The Vanuatu NSO should build strong relationships with the Ministry of Health and Education to ensure efficient and effective data compilation and reporting for MDG, WHO and UNESCO. There is also an obligation to contribute to and utilise international standards and methodologies in statistical reporting for the office. The United Nations Development Program also requires a large contribution from the Vanuatu NSO to deliver its contribution to the Pacific Human Development Report. 9

10 Strategic Directions (continued) Emerging data requirements The Minister for Finance, consistent with a UN resolution in February 2006, has a keen interest in gender statistics, disability and children. These priority areas are also a key goal of the Priority Action Agenda. The office must find ways to meet these requirements either by using existing data, collecting survey data or by using administrative data. By achieving this goal the Vanuatu National Statistics Office will be assisting the Vanuatu Government in its service delivery and policy making roles. Priority Action Agenda Under the Comprehensive Reform Program (CRP) there is a Priorities and Action agenda (PAA) 1 ; a medium term plan by government which includes the collection of data and specifies a need for some specific surveys like employment - 3 business sectors; formal and informal and subsistence. The HIES which was recently finalised, will provide data for use in sectoral plans by the Department of Economic and Sector Planning. These include fishing, copra and other crops and they need to consider the seasonality to meet the demand from users. There is demand for increased social reporting. The United Nations has set eight Millennium Development Goals for They have become globally accepted benchmarks of broader progress. Additional data will be required across government in Vanuatu to measure progress. They are: 1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2) Achieve universal primary education 3) Promote gender equality and empower women 4) Reduce child mortality 5) Improve maternal health 6) Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases 7) Ensure environmental sustainability 8) Develop a global partnership for development 1 PAA Monitoring of the progress on the reforms is the responsibility of the Department of Strategic Management (DSM). 10

11 Dissemination Strategy It is important that we build up the information available on the Vanuatu NSO website so that people with access to the internet can find what they need. It is also essential that printed publications are delivered on time and that clients receive this information in the best possible way, either by subscription, by or by purchasing them over the internet. We must continue to meet special data requests and meet the demand for ad hoc consultancy work. CDROM is another medium that could be used for dissemination. It is relatively cheap to produce and can be posted by mail to clients. In terms of lifting the profile of the Vanuatu National Statistics Office the office should consider producing media alerts, a short one page summary of the major findings from the surveys undertaken. Radio is a key medium that could be used to deliver information that would reach the majority of the population. This could be either by the radio reporting on the media releases sent to them or by arranging radio interviews for staff to conduct. The newspapers are also another medium that could be used to get the important statistical information to the people. 11

12 Outcomes The Vanuatu National Statistics Office will be: Recognised for delivering quality information, timely and reliable statistics to users Known for providing the data which will assist in evidence based decision making to contribute to improving economic growth and development for the equitable betterment of economic, financial and social well being of all the people of Vanuatu Valued for our quality service delivery Enjoying strong relationships with key clients and be seen as responsive to meeting their needs; and 'The people of Vanuatu will be aware of our statistics' 12

13 VANUATU NATIONAL STATISTICS OFFICE Activities In order to achieve the strategic directions, a number of activities have been developed under the Economic, Social and Statistical Leadership and Coordination sections in the Vanuatu National Statistics Office. Economic Section Activities The main activities of the Economic Section are: National Accounts Consumer Price Index Government Finance Statistics Trade Statistics Other Economic Indicators Household Income and Expenditure Survey Agriculture Census Social Section Activities The main activities of the Social Section are: Population Census Visitor Survey Poverty Statistics Tourism Migration Statistics Hotel Survey Social Statistics Social Profile Environment Statistics Statistical Leadership and Coordination Section Activities The main activities, once approval of the new structure is approved by the Public Service Commission, of the Statistical Leadership and Coordination Section will be: Statistical coordination across government Special Survey coordination (such as Population Census, Agriculture Census, Household Income and Expenditure Survey and Demography and Health Survey) Analytic Reporting Consultancy work Creating documentation for all of the Vanuatu National Statistical Office Surveys (Data management and Knowledge management) Disseminating statistics through publications and on the website 13

14 BUDGET AND RESOURCES Cost of Activities The Vanuatu National Statistics Office receives an annual budget which is set out in the table below. This covers most of the activities listed. However, additional funds are received from international organisations to support and supplement projects such as the Population and Agriculture Census and the Household Income and Expenditure Survey and other ad hoc surveys. Section Cost (Vatu) Economic Statistics Staff 12,203,300 Social Statistics Staff 12,009,600 Statistical Leadership and Coordination Staff * Administration Staff 7,668,461 Administration Expenses 6,594,083 Total** 40,612,564 *Costs associated with this Section will be added once the Public Service Commission approves the this additional section in the structure **The total cost does not include the cost of activities funded by other sources Human Resources The Vanuatu National Statistics Office has recently put forward a submission to the Public Service Commission to change its structure to be as depicted in the organisation structure below. Funding has been received to allow for this with the exception of the four new positions in the Provinces. It is expected that these positions will be funded in the new financial year. 14

15 Vanuatu NSO Organisation Structure Government 3050 Senior Economics Asssitant 3057 Compiler Assistant 3058 Compiler 3070 Compiler 3069 Senior Social Assistant 3059 Compiler 3068 Compiler Assistant 3060 Compiler 3066 Senior SLC NEW Information & Technology Manager 3061 Dissemination Officer NEW NEW Executive Administrative Manager NEW Accounts Officer 3062 Secretary/ Receptionist 3065 Cleaner/ Office Assistan 3072t Assistant Luganville 3063 Compiler 3064 Assistant s 4 Provinces NEW Government P19/21 Senior P17/18 P15/16 Assistant P11/14 Statistics Compiler P8/10

16 FIVE YEAR FORWARD WORK PROGRAM 2008 to 2013 Year Activity Social Section Projects Population Census Poverty Indicators Visitor Survey Demographic and Health Survey Pop GIS Gender Statistics Environment Statistics Labour Statistics Ongoing work Tourism Migration Hotel Survey Economic Section Projects Formal Sector Survey Informal Sector Survey Rebase CPI Rebase National Accounts Household Income & Expenditure Survey Agriculture Census Ongoing work National Accounts Consumer Price Index Trade Quarterly Statistical Indicators Annual Statistical Indicators